SWCC announces new volleyball coach

Southwestern Community College announced Casey Quiggle as the program’s new head volleyball coach Friday.

Quiggle, 41, replaces Aleesha Cleaver who resigned from the program to take over as the head coach of William Penn’s volleyball program.

The southern California native was most recently an assistant at the University of Jamestown in Jamestown, North Dakota for one season.

Quiggle boasts 14 years of coaching experience including seven years at the high school level.

The new Spartan volleyball coach led Aliso Niguel High School to two boys CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) playoff appearances in 2015 and ‘16.

While coaching the boys, Quiggle started as the freshman girls coach.

“I told the varsity coach ‘you let me assist you starting next year and I guarantee you we will win league within four years,’” said Quiggle when he was the freshman coach at Aliso Niguel. “‘Trust me we are changing the culture, things are going to happen and we are going to win league.’”

Quiggle helped to turn a losing program into back-to-back-to-back league titles (from 2013 to ‘15) after the school had never won a league title before in its history. The girls team also won a CIF regional title in 2014.

As far as transitioning to SWCC, Quiggle is looking to hit the ground running.

“Throughout my years of coaching, my student-athletes have tended to not only respect me, but they like my style and the way that I coach,” said Quiggle.

Quiggle also hopes that he can use his college experience to help his student-athletes decide their next step after junior college.

As far as his brand of coaching, Quiggle carries a defense first mentality.

“I’m more of a defensive-minded coach,” said Quiggle. “If you can keep the ball from hitting your side of the court, you’re going to do pretty well.”

He also thought that his year of coaching at the collegiate level will help him be prepared for his transition into his new role with the Spartans.

“I think I had a good experience in Jamestown as far as coaching at the college level.”

Before coaching, Quiggle earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Central College in Pella in 1999. He also earned master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Phoenix as well as coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University.

“Casey arose from our pool of candidates as the person most suited to lead our volleyball program due to a combination of his experience as a volleyball coach, background in the Midwest and his desire to help Southwestern volleyball take another step forward from the progress of this past season,” said athletic director Todd Lorensen.

While at Central, Quiggle was a three-sport athlete, participating in baseball, football and soccer.

Quiggle is expected to start at Southwestern on Feb. 12. where he will also be a Residence Hall coordinator.